Pilot Pen notebook

Published 10:25 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

ISNER'S OUT, VERDASCO'S IN -- Tournament director Anne Worcester lost a red-hot American, but she gained a top-10 player in return.

Fernando Verdasco, the 10th-ranked player on the ATP Tour, accepted a wild card into the 2009 Pilot Pen tennis tournament on Thursday. Verdasco, who ranked as high as No. 7 earlier this year, has already reached the semifinals of the Australian Open and the fourth round in the French Open and at Wimbledon. He will be making his fifth appearance at the Pilot Pen, where he reached the semifinals last year and the quarters in 2005 and 2007.

John Isner, the 6-foot-9 American who had jumped up 20 places in the ranking to a career high of No. 55, withdrew his wild card request due to heat exhaustion after he was forced to retire against Jeremy Chardy of France on Wednesday in Cincinnati.

Worcester passed out her last two wild cards late Thursday, to Marcos Baghdatis, who was ranked as high as No. 6 in 2006 but has fallen out of the top 100 due to injuries, and to American Rajeev Ram (No. 121).

PETROVA GETS HER 'CARD' -- On the women's side, No. 12 Nadia Petrova also received a wild card from Worcester into the tournament. The final women's wild card was awarded to Ai Sugiyama, No. 71 on the WTA rankings.

BOOLA BOOLA -- Yale freshman Marc Powers of Stamford is in the 32-man qualifying draw that starts today at the Connecticut Tennis Center. Powers won the Yale Summer Championship, which automatically earned him the wild card into the qualifying tournament.